Recognizing A Failed Reserve Funding Plan

Over time, the association was not able to afford all of the reserve maintenance pro­jects that needed attention, because of their “fixed income” reserve funding policy. While they knew that special assessments or borrowing funds from a commercial lend­er were options, the board felt that these options were politically impractical based on their member demographics. What each board decided to do was to simply fund all of the maintenance projects that they could each year until they ran out of money. This literally became the association’s policy. This caused them to defer any uncompleted projects to the following year, thus passing the buck to the succeeding board. Unfortunately, the uncompleted projects continued to accumulate, so that this “uncompleted projects” list grew to include a several year accumulation of mainte­nance projects.

When we came on the scene, this problem had reached critical mass and could not be ignored. We were engaged to perform the first comprehensive reserve study for the association, and had a number of meetings with the board to help them understand how they had reached this position. The association’s failure to perform timely mainte­nance caused further damage by the complete failure of certain components that would not have required replacement had the scheduled maintenance been performed. An example of this was the failure to correct numerous water intrusion issues from poor roofing, poorly designed gutter and downspoutsystems, misdirected irrigation sprin-klers, landscaping issues such as earth/wood contact on wood siding, etc. These issues ultimately required the complete replacement of siding on many buildings; a cost that could have been avoided. This is just one example of issues that caused future repair costs to escalate even further.

In the more recent years before we were engaged, the association had begun to recog­nize that it had a problem and had more aggressively raised reserve assessments to the point that they were higher than those of comparable projects. But, it still was not enough to overcome decades of underfunding. Further, our reserve study and analy­sis of the association’s reserve expenditures over the last few years resulted in almost doubling the reserve requirements. This was because the association paid for numer­ous “small” repair projects from reserve that were clearly appropriate reserve expend­itures, but for which the association had never established a reserve budget. They were spending money on projects for which no assessments ever existed.

We have observed several associations over last 25 years attempting to fund their de­ferred maintenance projects in this manner. All suffered a very predictable ending. The fact is if you just spend the amount of money you’ve got available and not the amount of money it takes to actually complete a project, the projects never get com­pleted as planned, and your deferred maintenance projects snowball into an insur­mountable problem. This is not a plan, this is a reaction.

A responsible board must make tough decisions rather than passing the buck to the successor board. That often means that a current board has to resolve problems creat­ed by a prior board. The fact is that you don’t get to play the cards that you want, you get to play the cards that you’re dealt. When the board is faced with a situation of not enough money coming in and too much money going out, there are only two possible solutions. One, increase revenues, or two decrease expenses.

An association may attempt to decrease expenses by making temporary repairs that extend the life of a component or by substituting lower-cost products in making re­pairs or replacements. Since most associations have already done this analysis and still are coming up short, the only remaining answer is to increase revenues. This gen­erally means that the association must make a special assessment or borrow funds, or a combination of both.

In this particular association, we also recommended that several substitute products that didn’t exist forty years ago be used in repair and replacement work. While these resulted in higher immediate costs, it considerably reduced the long term maintenance costs to the association.

How expensive was this for the association? They ended up borrowing $30,000,000 (about $10,000 per member) to fund major reserve repair and replacement projects. Unfortunately, they will still need more, as that does not address all the association’s needs. Had that amount instead been assessed ratably over time to the members from inception, it would only have amounted to about $20 per month per member. Effec­tively, given the age of the association and member demographics, this resulted in a shift of the entire cost from one generation to the next.

I am very pleased with our Portfolio Manager and Community Association Management in general. Both have met my expectations and in many cases they have exceeded them!

D.Ciszewski, Raleigh, NCExceeded My Expectations!

In the past, we felt like we did not get much support due to our size or the lack of effort from the person handling our account. I do not feel that way with Community Association Management. Our Property Manager has been very active in what we are trying to accomplish in our community and providing us with a variety of options. We are currently going through trying to figure out what to do about our roofing situation. The manager provided us good options and now we are in the process of startin…

Darlene Z. Charlotte, NCPhenomenal Support!

6 yrs ago Community Association Management helped bail us out from insolvency to today’s successful surplus balance ! Community Association Management took the legal actions required to resolve our long uncollected debts – and acquire paying owners. Resolution of financial disputes required a professional mediator – and the prior management company not only failed at that task – they gave other “bad” advice that resulted in deficit budgets. Community Association Management has given “good” advic…

D. GarrettPresidentBraxton Estates

We needed structure and guidance and we are so appreciative to get that from this company.

R. BellTreasurerHope Crossing

I like the professionalism of Community Association Management and the reporting. our Portfolio Manager is great! Good to work with and responsive. I also like Community Association Management being involved with legislative issues.

M. EdgerPresidentColony Crossing

Community Management is a very professionally run organization, with all of the aids and assistance necessary to help a HOA board of directors answer to their community’s needs.

B. Chiles, Charlotte NCProfessionally Run Organization

Quite impressed with the eManageSuite system!!

S. Reavis; Charlotte, NCImpressive!

Community Association Management is a solutions provider that enables HOA Boards to run efficiently and effectively. Their service is off the charts and their depth of knowledge and experience are invaluable.

Ace T., Charlotte, NCInvaluable Knowledge and Experience

Community Association Management has done a very good job for us . They provide good expense management and provide prompt monthly reports regarding all expenditures. Likewise , they have been quick to respond to the various problems that seem to always come up from time to time . In conclusion , I would highly recommend their organization.

Frank M., Charlotte ,NCGood Expense Management....

When our new HOA was looking for a management company, several places that we contacted wouldn’t even give us the time of day because our community is so small that we weren’t worth their time and effort. In contrast, KDK Property Management (now part of Community Association Management) has provided our HOA with over a year of great service at an unbeatable price! The employees have frequently gone above and beyond the terms of our contract to protect the best interests of our neighborhood. F…